The NFL gets so much right in the realm of public and media relations for the league.

Occasionally, they gets something wrong and when they do so it’s normally of gigantic proportions.

Need an example? Allowing Art Modell to move the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore then after agreeing to replace the team now allowing enough start up time.

Now? Ray Rice’s alleged suspension for knocking his now-wife out cold. The incident, which happened earlier this year, resulted in a massive two-game suspension for the Baltimore Ravens running back and will ultimately cost him $58,000.

Some around him, including his coach and team apparently, consider it Rice paying his debt and dealing with the consequences. Reality quickly set in with respect to that opinion as sports media figures and anyone with a conscience who gets that you don’t hit a woman – ever – chimed in via social media regarding Rice’s slap on the wrist.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, however, may have really stepped in it when he said the following on First Take:

“It's not about him, then. It's about you, and here's what I mean by that. We keep talking about the guys. We know you have no business putting your hands on a woman. I don't know how many times I got to reiterate that. But as a man who was raised by women, see I know what I'm going to do if somebody touches a female member of my family. I know what I'm going to do, I know what my boys are going to do. I know what, I'm going to have to remind myself that I work for the Worldwide Leader, I'm going to have to get law enforcement officials involved because of what I'm going to be tempted to do. But what I've tried to employ the female members of my family, some of who you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this what, I've done this all my life, let's make sure we don't do anything to provoke wrong actions, because if I come, or somebody else come, whether it's law enforcement officials, your brother or the fellas that you know, if we come after somebody has put their hands on you, it doesn't negate the fact that they already put their hands on you. So let's try to make sure that we can do our part in making sure that that doesn't happen. Now you got some dudes that are just horrible and they're going to do it anyway, and there's never an excuse to put your hands on a woman. But domestic violence or whatever the case may be, with men putting their hands on women, is obviously a very real, real issue in our society. And I think that just talking about what guys shouldn't do, we got to also make sure that you can do your part to do whatever you can do to make, to try to make sure it doesn't happen. We know they're wrong. We know they're criminals. We know they probably deserve to be in jail. In Ray Rice's case, he probably deserves more than a 2-game suspension which we both acknowledged. But at the same time, we also have to make sure that we learn as much as we can about elements of provocation. Not that there's real provocation, but the elements of provocation, you got to make sure that you address them, because we've got to do is do what we can to try to prevent the situation from happening in any way. And I don't think that's broached enough, is all I'm saying. No point of blame.” – transcript courtesy of Deadspin.

Michelle Beadle, a colleague at the Worldwide Leader, responded with wit and sarcasm via Twitter:

I was in an abusive relationship once. I'm aware that men & women can both be the abuser. To spread a message that we not 'provoke' is wrong

I don’t know what to make of Smith’s comments other than they were wrong headed, but if I were ESPN, I’d leave Beadle alone, because to be quite honest the wrath she laid upon her colleague is well deserved.

As for the NFL? They need to go back to the drawing board with discipline. Two games for knocking a woman out? But harsher penalties for players who smoke weed? Ummm…yeah…these two things are exactly alike.

Update: As you can expect with the Twitterverse, a segment of users have lost has lost its mind over Beadle's tweets and they are just showing how right she has been by standing up for herself. Some of this is NSFW, but here's a couple of replies: